Retail

The long and drawn-out demise of US rental giant Blockbuster looks to be reaching a conclusion with predictions that the retailer could file for bankruptcy as soon as the end of the week. Home Media reports that Blockbuster’s attempts to recapitalise to allow a shift in focus to multiplatform distribution …

Online retailer ShopTo.net has released a downloadable app for iPhone users. The free app allows customers to browse games, check their orders, make pre-orders and buy new products. It also includes new game trailers, reviews and a forum with 40,000 other gamers. Users can even link the app to their …

Best Buy’s entertainment boss Marc Spence will leave the electronics retailer on Friday, August 27th. Spence oversaw the launch of Best Buy in Europe and developed the firm’s entertainment departments – which included large video game demonstration areas and a pre-owned range. During his UK retail career, Spence has worked …

The publisher renowned for making most of its money online has pledged its future to bricks and mortar retail. Blizzard is best known for its multi-billion dollar MMO, World of Warcraft, which generates most of its money through subscriptions. But the firm says it couldn’t release its blockbuster titles without …

MTV owner Viacom’s operating income for the quarter ending June 30th 2010 climbed 35 per cent to $794m Revenues were relatively flat year-on-year, up from $3.299bn last year to $3.301bn. Net earning jumped 51 per cent to $418m. For the six months ending June 30th operating income climbed 29 per …

A new study entitled ‘The D2 Report: Discs & Digital – The Business of Home Entertainment Retailing’ from the Entertainment Merchants Association claims that traditional boxed product still accounts for the vast bulk of sales in the video games market. It claims that combined DVD and Blu-ray sales totalled $17.9bn …

It is an end of an era. CHIPSWORLD has closed all 12 of its company-owned stores and has made its staff redundant. The indie chain has been jointly run by Nik Agar and Don McCabe for 24 years. But it’s not quite all over for the brand. CHIPS’ franchise business …

Though the price GameStop paid for casual games portal giant Kongregate wasn’t divulged as part of the surprise announcement of the acquisition earlier today, one analyst has had a stab at guessing the figure. We view the acquisition of Kongregate as a slight positive for GameStop,” Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter …

CHIPS has closed all of its company-owned stores today. However, the company has denied it is in administration and will issue a statement clarifying the situation later today. The development only affects its 12 company-owned stores. The firm’s 14 franchised outlets are unaffected by any developments at Chipsworld ltd. We …

Growing retail force HMV’s grand plans to become a ‘superbrand’ in the entertainment sector have taken a big step forward today with the launch of a brand new digital music service, hmvdigital.com. The new portal is the first concrete development to emerge from the acquisition of digital delivery service 7Digital …